* * *
“What effect were these arrangements to have upon those who did not come into the combination...?” asked the chairman.
“I do not think we ever took that question up,” answered Mr. Warden.
A second objection to making a contract with the company came from Mr. Scott of the Pennsylvania road and Mr. Potts of the Empire Transportation Company. The substance of this objection was that the plan took no account of the oil producer—the man to whom the world owed the business. Mr. Scott was strong in his assertion that they could never succeed unless they took care of the producers. Mr. Warden objected strongly to forming a combination with them. “The interests of the producers were in one sense antagonistic to ours: one as the seller and the other as the buyer. We held in argument that the producers were abundantly able to take care of their own branch of the business if they took care of the quantity produced.” So strongly did Mr. Scott argue, however, that finally the members of the South Improvement Company yielded, and a draft of an agreement, to be proposed to the producers, was drawn up in lead pencil; it was never presented. It seems to have been used principally to quiet Mr. Scott.
THOMAS A. SCOTT
The contract of the South Improvement Company with the Pennsylvania Railroad was signed by Mr. Scott, then vice-president of the road.
JAY GOULD
President of the Erie Railroad in 1872. Signer of the contract with the South Improvement Company.
WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT
The contract of the South Improvement Company with the New York Central was signed by Mr. Vanderbilt, then vice-president of the road.
